Grand Slam Tennis (Wii Motion Plus) Review

The second game from EA that uses Wii Motion Plus is Grand Slam Tennis. This is a new franchise and as such there might be some growing pains. But lets go into the depth of the product and see whats so special about it.

Now just to make sure you understand I don't play tennis. I don't follow the sport in any way. My former experience with video game tennis is limited to Virtua Tennis on the Dreamcast and Wii Sports Tennis. And just so you know I sucked at both of them. Will Grand Slam Tennis ease me in to the world of professional tennis?

F%@k no! Grand Slam Tennis (GST) is unbelievably complex and not in a good way. First off the games controls which should be 1:1 motion just isn't registering. In fact I couldn't tell for the longest time if Wii Motion Plus was even working. After playing for a week straight I can say that Wii Motion Plus does register but its so slight you hardly even notice. Also the movements of the players on screen in association with the Wiimote controls seem unnatural. So can the game survive with unintuitive controls?

Yes it can. GST has the foundation for an amazing Tennis game. Its career Grand Slam mode is a great mode that is very deep. In this mode you take a created tennis player on a journey to win the 4 major tournaments. And this is the only video game that has Wimbleton in all its glory. There is also a lot of mini games and challenges that you can compete in. The challenge of the gameplay in general will will keep you coming back even when you get frustrated by the controls. There was a lot of John McEnroe where if the Wiimote wasn't attached to my wrist it would have been shattered as it was tossed to the ground. (I'll chalk that up to roleplaying)

There are 2 things this game does really well. First is multiplayer. Playing with someone in the same room is awesome because you know your on even ground. Battles are hard and satisfying and usually we are laughing most of the time. It is definitely a more fleshed out Wii Tennis and does have really long legs once more than 2 people start playing.

The second thing I truly enjoyed is more of a personal preference than anything else. I love the graphic style. Those exaggerated cartoon characters really hide the lack of horsepower in the Wii tech. I like it so much so that I wish they would have implemented it into the new Tiger Woods. (It looks like will get this style when the new Madden comes out later this year) The camera and and sound are also top notch and really put you ahem...In the game.

So in conclusion, I cannot recommend this game as a superb example of Wii Motion Plus. Its inability to show proper subtle movements hold it back on that front. Now as a tennis game its deep career, awesome multiplayer, and beautiful stylized graphics make it an easy choice for tennis fans or people who wish that Wii Tennis was a deeper experience. Just don't let someone tell you that you NEED Wii Motion Plus to play this game and have fun because that would be a lie. It is a good start to what I think will be a awesome series. But Grand Slam Tennis has its work cut out for itself next year.